precocious
adjective

- a precocious child shows intelligence or skill at a very young age, or behaves in an adult way

- (especially of children) showing mental development or achievement much earlier than usual

- exceptionally early in development or occurrence

Longman Dictionary / Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN

When you look at the Latin roots of "precocious" it all makes sense. When pre (meaning “before”) joins coquere (meaning “to ripen”), you have something that is ripening prematurely. And in the case of precocious, you are usually describing young people who have some adult-like quality about them.

Precocious was first used in relation to early-maturing fruits and flowers. The figurative sense first appeared in the mid 17th century.

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PERFECTLY PRECOCIOUS

- When Enrico Fermi grew bored with his mathematics classes, a professor gave him a set of nine special problems. Some time later, the professor asked his student how he was progressing.  “Oh, they are very hard,” he replied, “I have only managed to solve six of them.” The professor was stunned. “But those,” he cried, “are all unsolved problems!”.

- One day, when future writer Charles Lamb was just a small boy, his sister Mary took him for a stroll through a cemetery. As they passed the tombstones, the precocious young boy read the congratulatory epitaphs denoting the deceased as “charitable,” “virtuous,” “beloved,” and so on.  Returning home some time later, Charles suddenly turned to his sister, “Mary,” he asked, “where are all the naughty people buried?”.

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SYNONYMS

advanced, ahead of their time, ahead of one’s peers, early developer, exceptionally smart, gifted, mature for their age, old beyond one’s years, PRECOCIOUS, premature, prematurely developed, well advanced

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Do you think that PRECOCIOUS children should attend special schools, or should they be integrated into the state education system?”

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40